Tranquebar

Tranquebar
Presidency: Madras
Coordinates:
Altitude:
Present Day Details
Place Name:	Tharangambadi
State/Province:	Tamil Nadu
Country:	India
Transport links

Tranquebar, sometimes spelled Trankebar (now called Tharangambadi) is a coastal town about 100km south of Pondicherry, formerly in the Madras Presidency. In the Danish era it was an important port.

History

Founded by the Dutch East India Company, Tranquebar was a Danish colony from 1620 until 1845, when it was sold to the British. The Danish built Fort Dansborg in 1620 as the governor's residence.

Records for Family History

The original records for Tranquebar are housed in archives in Denmark. In addition, some details are held in a card index compiled by Kay Larsen – which up to at least the early 1980s was housed in the Rigsarkivet in Copenhagen. This index can now be found on www.pkv.dk/dop - unfortunately it is in danish ;-)

Records held outside Denmark

• Some records can be found amongst those of the Madras Presidency – more particularly after 1845 when the colony came under British control.

• LDS film no 128836 covers registers of baptisms , marriages and burials of both the Jerusalem and Zion churches of Tranquebar during the period 1707-1818. These records were taken from the original records at Landsarkivet, Copenhagen and the microfilms can be ordered on loan and viewed at local Family History Centres.

• LDS films no 39091-39092 which covers 1834 census of Tranquebar (these films are in Danish and can be accessed as above)

• List of marriages registered in the Danish church register of Zion church, Tranquebar, 1767-184 by Knud Heiberg. (In the UK , this title is available in, at least, both the British Library and Society of Genealogists )

• List of Inscriptions on Tombs or monuments in Madras possessing historical or archaeological interest. Vol. II by J Cotton (1946). Includes inscriptions from the Danish Cemetery at Tranquebar and the Dutch Cemeteries at Masulipatam, Pulicat, and Sadras. (In the UK , this title is available in, at least, both the British Library and Society of Genealogists )

• BACSA holdings at the British Library under references Mss Eur F370/1358A & B comprise The Tombs in the Danish Graveyards in Tranquebar Photocopies of Danish registers compiled by Rev Knud Heiberg following a survey in Mar 1935 and translated by Poul Beckmann, 2006.

• Tranquebar cemeteries and grave-monuments by Karin Kryger and Lisbeth Gasparski (Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture 2003). A copy is also held as part of the BACSA holdings at the British Library under ref - Mss Eur F370/1358/C . " The graveyards covered are Zion churchyard, New Jerusalem Church and churchyard, the cemetery at the Town Gate (Landporten), the Old Cemetery in Nygade, the Roman Catholic burial ground near the Town Gate, and the graveyard at Bethlehem Church, Poreyar, about one kilometre from Tranquebar. The book is liberally illustrated with historical picture-maps, old plans, and survey drawings, as well as a delicious array of photographs, monuments , memorials , and mural tablets ..."

External Links

• Tranquebar - The Danish East India Company 1616 - 1669
• Article A Danish heritage on Indian shores The Tribune (India) of 6 December 2009
• “The Medical Skills of the Malabar Doctors in Tranquebar, India, as Recorded by Surgeon T L F Folly, 1798” by Niklas Thode Jensen, PhD student Med Hist. 2005 October 1; 49(4): 489–515.
• Danish India –Trankebar from Marco Ramerini’s Dutch Portuguese Colonial History
• "Pages from History: An Icelander’s view of 17th C. Tranquebar" by Dr A Raman Madras Musings April 16-30 , 2010
• "Pages from History: Documenting the flora of the Coromandel" by Dr A Raman Madras Musings July 16-31, 2009. Johann Peter Rottler Missionary (1749-1836). Scroll to the bottom of the page